Dorsi: A Story of Redemption - Chapter 4

I would be remiss not to include a full chapter about my fathers stroke. You see, his stroke, and the ones that came after, were - and are - one of the most inspiring memories of my life, and when things get tough for me, I remember back to what my father went through and it helps me to cope with everyday life.

My dad went on to have not only one stroke but 5 major ones - completely causing him to loose his ability to speak. Not only was this frustrating for him, but frustrating for us as his family to stand by and feel helpless on how to help him.

My father, being the extremely intelligent man that he was, had just suffered a massive blow. Not only had he lost his speech but he could no longer work. And since he was the top realtor in the SF Bay Area at one time, you can imagine how this affected him. Not only could he not support his family anymore, but his prized people relations skills that he was so good at now eluded him in his silent world.

What shocked me though is how my father coped with his disabilities in the aftermath of his strokes. For not only did he go on to overcome them but he went onto do amazing things in his life - things that left us speechless sometimes.........like how he decided to learn to talk again.......

Never being one to give up, I remember coming home from school and watching my dad watching Sesame Street on TV. This was so very odd for me, to see my 48 year old intelligent dad watching programs meant for small children. But you see, my dad had a plan: he figured that if he had to start all over again he would start by learning the alphabet, and by learning basic words again. And he figured what better way to do that than by watching Sesame Street? I also remember him sitting alone in his office, plunking away on his old typewriter, one key at a time, and oddly enough, even his words on paper came out garbled and unintelligible.

It also wasn't surprising to walk in and see my dad reading books meant for small kids - one painstaking page at a time. I remember watching him mouth the words and repeating them over and over until he was satisfied that he was making progress......

Strokes are such a weird thing....

My father would later tell me of he knew what he wanted to say in his head but he just couldn't get the words out right. He explained later on how extremely frustrated he would get trying to explain the simplest things to us and how maddening it was to not be able to get his thoughts to turn into understandable words.

Well eventually the words did start coming.... Not only did my father get his speech back slowly, but he also went back to college during this time.

He loved being in college - even though he was one of the oldest people there he excelled and made many friends. Many people gravitated towards my father because of his kindness and his spirit - and in true Jim Campbell form - he helped many people with disabilities and problems. One of the degrees he ended up getting was as an activity director helping other disabled people. And true to form, he wasn't satisfied with just one degree - he went onto to also get many others! ( I think he just really liked being in school too!).

Oh my dad - as I write this I get teary eyed thinking about how hard he fought adversity through his strokes - doing it not only with quiet strength but with a sweetness and kindness of spirit that I will never forget.

I guess that's why I'm so ashamed of the path that I soon went down - why I did the things I did I'll never know but I'm so glad that my father never knew because I would have been brutally ashamed.